Critical Essays in Sport Management ─ Exploring and Achieving a Paradigm Shift

This collection of essays, written by a number of respected sport management scholars, addresses many of the challenges and issues facing today’s sport management academic programs. It is intended to begin a professional and scholarly discussion to identify the best, or at least the most logical, paths to follow for sport management programs and the industry with which they are so closely aligned. Contributors, invited to participate based on their recognized areas of expertise, address specific topics using their own unique voices and writing styles.

In the ebook version, essays link to video introductions by the authors and to online discussion forums where readers can respond to the issues presented in the essays.

From the Preface: The field of sport management stands at an academic crossroads; the essays in this book address the following and other emerging questions:

Should our successful field of study continue to model other disciplines and perpetuate their successes, as well as their shortcomings, or should we determine our own specific model for academic success?

How are we doing in preparing future sport managers to perform in the industry and on the global stage?

Where do we belong in the scheme of academe?

The book’s goal is to generate discussion among sport management professors, industry professionals who serve as adjunct faculty and participate on sport management program advisory boards, doctoral students who intend to teach in sport management programs, and others who explore and critique higher education in general.

Andy Gillentine currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Sport and Entertainment Department at the University of South Carolina, US. Previously, he held positions as the Associate Dean, Associate Professor, and Director of the Sport Administration Programs at the University of Miami, and was Graduate Program Director at Mississippi State University. Additionally, he served as a founding commissioner of COSMA and as chair of a joint task force of NASPE/NASSM charged with formalizing the curricular standards required for accreditation. He has also served on the Sport Management Program Review Council Executive Board and as Chair of the National Sport Management Council. In April 2009, he received NASPE's Sport Management Outstanding Achievement Award.

Robert E. Baker is the Director of the Center for Sport Management at George Mason University, US. Prior to initiating academic programs at two different academic institutions, he had garnered extensive sport industry experience. His research interests include professional preparation in sport management, the dynamic relationships among sport industry stakeholders, and sport for development and peace. He has obtained approximately $2 million in external funding and has written dozens of scholarly and professional articles.

Jacquelyn Cuneen is a Professor of Sport Management at Bowling Green State University, US, where she teaches sport and event promotion and supervises sport management field experience students. Her research foci are sport-related advertising and professional preparation of sport managers. She has authored or co-authored more than 50 scholarly and professional articles for numerous journals. She has served in various elected and appointed offices for NASSM, the Sport Marketing Association, and the Ohio Association for HPERD.